Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Number of immigration measures introduced in state legislatures this year: 1,404 Number introduced during the previous 10 years: 1,300 (Source: Harper's Index)

Plus --

Researchers at University of California's School of Public Health published a study this week which found "Illegal Latino immigrants do not cause a drag on the U.S. health care system as some critics have contended and in fact get less care than Latinos in the country legally."

Writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the study team stated "illegal Mexican immigrants had 1.6 fewer visits to doctors over the course of a year than people born in the country to Mexican immigrants. Other undocumented Latinos had 2.1 fewer physician visits than their U.S.-born counterparts." "Low rates of use of health-care services by Mexican immigrants and similar trends among other Latinos do not support public concern about immigrants' overuse of the health care system. Undocumented individuals demonstrate less use of health care than U.S.-born citizens and have more negative experiences with the health care that they have received," they said.

And --

A beautiful and informative post by Jesse Wendel at Group News Blog tells the story of how 9-year-old Christopher Buchleitner's life was saved by border crosser Jesus Manual Cordova after Christopher's mother had a car wreck in the desert near Tucson and lay dying. Jesus Cordova remained with the boy overnight, building a fire for him and his mother, until help arrived in the morning. For his efforts, Cordova was deported without any thanks or exchange of addresses. Read the story and pass it on.

At John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, Robert Frost recited his poem, The Gift Outright:

The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were England's, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed. Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war) To the land vaguely realizing westward, But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, Such as she was, such as she would become.

We are all, every one of us, immigrants here. Even if we are born here, we still have to forge our own relationship with this country, this geography, this continent that was devoid of human inhabitants until very recently in the span of time. Every single American you love and admire is an immigrant or the child of immigrants. When we say no to those who seek the same things our ancestors did, we are not just arrogant, we are unbelievably stupid -- we are saying no to what may well be our "salvation in surrender". We have no way of knowing who is coming to join us, except that in the greater scheme of things, we need them as much as they need us.

"Our primary goal is to distribute women's works not readily available elsewhere, those written, published and/or printed by women. It is important to us that works by women be allowed to define their own context by being brought together in one place."

Hear, hear.

Lastly, an e-mail from reader Kat in Berkeley:

"You and Ginny will be so proud: I finally started cooking with whole wheat flour.

"I know, I know, how could I have waited so long? I didn't grow up with it, I guess, so it took me a while. Anyway, my multi-grain dinner rolls were the hit of Thanksgiving, and I even made a pretty decent batch of biscuits that used about half-and-half unbleached and whole wheat. they had a sweetness and crunch on the outside that was really yummy. Not authentic, I know, but still good.

"I've been thinking and observing the world with regards to your accessibility post on the Watershed. I've realized just how many places really aren't accessible to folks who are disabled. I honestly didn't realize just how inaccessible the world is. An interesting image came last evening in a card shop. The counter was really high, so underneath there was a fold-out counter at about wheelchair-height. Except that the nearest display was only about 3 feet behind......Not making a point or anything, here, just sharing what I've observed...."

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WISH LIST

THINGS I NEED:Emergency gasoline- or propane-powered generator of 2500 watts or better

THINGS I WANT:Books: Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey by William Least Heat Moon; The Round House by Louise Erdrich; A Simple Revolution by Judy Grahn; Some Assembly Required by Annie and Sam Lamott; Silk Parachute by John McPheeFruit, cheese, and/or nutsNon-acidic file storage boxes1 small container treacleDecent working vacuum cleaner (have an electric broom, need heavier duty)Birdseed that attracts cardinals, jays, buntings, juncos, nuthatches and woodpeckersDVD with "Singing In The Rain", "Wizard of Oz", "An American in Paris"Cat food: W/D feline kibbleStrawberry potTurntable that converts vinyl to MP3s

ITEMS REMOVED FROM LIST:"Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver [gifted to me from Pam I.!!]1 year donation to Heifer International for either chickens or a goat to an African farm woman [gifted to me from Win Farrell and Sheldon Linseth!!]1 year sub to Netflix [gifted to me from Liza Cowan!!]

ONLINE FREE DONATION LINKS

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Go to the above site and click (no cost to you) to help provide free mammograms for women who cannot afford them. At this site are tabs which will also allow you to Click to Give food for the hungry, free child healthcare, books to spread literacy, rainforest habitat protection, and food/care for animal rescue. Easy do-gooding!

BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR GINNY BATES

For background information on the characters and a basic summary of Ginny Bates, read this. For past chapters, go down this column to Labels, find Ginny Bates and follow the numbers in brackets after each label to read the chapter in more or less chronological order.

To see a floorplan of their house, go to the post Setting Up House. For a "genealogy" of the main characters, look at this graphic. To see the map of "their" Seattle, click on this. For a floorplan of their beach house near Galveston, check here. For the floorplan of their second house, after 2013, look here.

Why This Blog?

In the mid 1980's, I began creating a periodic newsletter for a close circle of friends, sharing information and thoughts -- like a holiday letter, only several times a year. I consumed a great deal of press-on typeface, Dover uncopyrighted graphics, and offset printing services. Sometimes I miss those days, the hands-on tangibility of it all. Two of those newsletters became infamous: The one where I was taken in by the "Alien Autopsy" fake documentary on Fox and wrote everybody about how this had to be exposed (listen, it was a difficult year for me) and the one where I sent everybody a color Xerox of the polyp photographed within my uterus.

My friend AJ brought me into the cyberworld, and eventually my newsletters became select group e-mails, named Maggie's Watershed. But now it's time to make use of even more expanded technology (and thanks to Liza Cowan for the nudge). This format will allow you to link easily to sites and sights I'm recommending, and will also give you the chance to comment. Ya'll come back now, heah?